So, I've been largely MIA for two weeks.
No, I didn't go to Bora Bora.

No, I didn't quit doing what I do.

No, I wasn't captured by aliens.

Definitely, NO, I've Not been having 24/7 sex and unable to come up for air.

All that being said, I've been consumed with catching up with family and being a mom for the last 14 days.

Packing, unpacking, rinsing and repeating, and ending it all with a destination wedding.

Now, I'm back in the saddle (and ouch, it hurts after being gone for so long), but I am in it, thankfully.

Today, marked back to school for my kids, so I guess, summer is officially over in my house, and it is only appropriate that I share the top TEN pieces of shit I learned this summer:

1. Summer is no fun as a responsible adult. There are no midnight rides to nowhere or make out sessions on the 18th hole.

2. Two things come from hanging in a hammock in the garden of a posh hotel in South Florida with lights flickering above and the ocean crashing in the background: great ideas and bug bites.

3. Indies write amazing freaking books with the freedom to create the best characters, and all of a sudden I lust cowboys like Mason in MoonDance in Red by Salem Archer and Grayson in Perfectly Imperfect by Fabiola Francisco.

4. Couch sex is so not what I remember...

5. My twenties were all they were damn well cracked up to be, and books like Fifteen Weekends by Christy Pastore remind me of just that...and, deep inside, I am an "Emily."

6. When the characters in your head star playing out a scene on a big extended family vacation, pretend you have to pee and go write that shit down.

7. There are advantages to being a morning person, such as getting to know people on the other side of the Atlantic.

8. Speaking of rockers, I fell head over heels with one over the summer. Alan Manzone from Girl on the Half Shell by Susan Ward.

9. I also happened to begin to carry a flame for moviestar playboy, Alex Tate in Perfect Plans by CJ Wells.

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